DR1 Travel News - 24 January 2017

Ahnvee Resort, the new hotel in Puerto Plata
Jason Kycek to direct sales and marketing at Casa de Campo
Tourist flow increases by 6% in 2016
Busy month for arrivals in December

Ahnvee Resort, the new hotel in Puerto Plata
The Ahnvee Resort & Sport is the new deluxe all-inclusive 144-suite hotel in Sosua, Puerto Plata, that opened 2 January 2017. The hotel was formerly the Occidental La Esplanada and had been closed for many years until it was purchased by US investors and renovated to open as The Ahnvee Resort & Sport.

All facilities at the hotel and the rooms have been designed to attract top-level athletes. The hotel features three full-service restaurants, two swimming pools with bars and a gymnasium. Guests can also enjoy water, land and extreme sports, as well as shuttle service to the Sosúa Beach area.

Jason Kycek to direct sales and marketing at Casa de Campo
Casa de Campo Resort & Villas announced the appointment of Jason Kycek as its sales and marketing vice president. He will work closely with Andrés Pichardo, recently appointed president of the La Romana tourism and residential enclave.

Kycek previously worked as vice president of sales and marketing USA for Occidental Hotels & Resorts. He is familiar with selling the Dominican Republic after serving as senior director of sales for Occidental all-inclusive resorts including hotels in the Dominican Republic from 2011 to 2012.

Tourist flow increases by more than 6% in 2016
The arrival of tourists by air to the Dominican Republic grew 6% in 2016, according to the latest report by the Central Bank. The Central Bank statistics indicate that 5,959,347 tourist visited the country last year arriving by air. Of the 5,959,347 tourists in 2016, 359,488 more travelers came than in 2015, for the 6% increase. Of that increase, 84% were foreign tourists and 16% were Dominicans living abroad.

The Dominican Republic has seen four years of consistent growth in tourists arriving by air since 2013. In 2013, the country received 4,689,770 tourists; in 2014, some 5,141,377 tourists; in 2015, some 5,599,859 tourists; and in 2016, 5,959,347 tourists.

Of non-resident foreign air arrivals, most were from North America (United States, Canada and Mexico), followed by travelers from Europe.

Punta Cana welcomed 66.9% of the total foreign visitors who arrived by air in 2016.

The total number of passengers both resident and non-resident by air reached the figure of 6,558,982, for 407,000 more passengers than in 2015.

Punta Cana was the destination to receive the most arrivals, with 66.9% of foreign tourists or 3,432,178 air arrivals.

94% of air arrivals said they came for leisure, 3.4% to visit friends and relatives, 1.7% for business, 0.3% for a convention.

Busy month for arrivals in December
The Migration Department statistics indicate that in the month of December 2016, 857,071 people arrived in the country with the busiest airports being Punta Cana, with 290,288 passenger arrivals and Las Americas with 182,206.

There were 199,528 arrivals by sea, with 75,464 in Puerto Plata, followed by La Romana with 72,662 and then Sans Souci with 36,923 passenger arrivals.

The number of arrivals in December 2016 was 189,741 up on the same time period in 2105.

The Central Bank also highlights that despite the overall increase, travel in December was affected by the uncertainty of an electoral year in the United States.

Just in the month of December, according to the Central Bank statistics, the Dominican Republic received 606,846 non-resident airline passengers – a number that was more than 23,000 more than for the same month in 2015. However the report also highlights a reduction in the number of visitors from Venezuela that went from 24,700 in December 2015 to just 14,700 in December 2016. The report said that this decrease was partially responsible for the 3.6% decline in passengers arriving at Las Americas International Airport, which is the principle of arrival airport for Venezuelans.

Excluding the decrease in passengers from Venezuela, the overall number of visitors in December 2016 increased by 6.3% from 2015.